More People Buying Mexican Coca Cola

Perhaps it’s the glass bottles. Or it could be the lack of high fructose corn syrup. Maybe it just tastes better. Whatever the reason, a growing number of folks on the north side of the Rio Grande are drinking Coca Cola bottled in Mexico.

One of the major reasons is the aforementioned absence of HFCS is Mexican Coke, which still uses cane sugar as its sweetener. While the debate continues over whether or not HFCS is any worse for you than sugar, there are many who say there is a marked difference in the taste of the two sweeteners.

Mexican Coke also provides those soda shoppers with something to sip on during those months when Kosher for Passover Coke isn’t on sale.

DailyFinance spoke to Coke’s vice president and general manager of Importation and Commercialization (try to fit that on a business card), who added that the growing Hispanic population in the U.S. is contributing to the increase in imported pop:

When purchasing Coca-Cola from Mexico, Hispanics are purchasing a bit of nostalgia — it’s like getting a piece of home… Some of that feeling may have to do with the packaging and the fact that it is imported.

Of course, many people who prefer Mexican Coke have to pay extra to do so. Here in New York, a 12 oz. bottle of the imported stuff will cost you around twice as much as a same-size can of the domestic.

When I tried Mexican Coke for the first time, I was kind of astonished that there was such a difference. Being in my 30s, the pre-New Coke I drank as a kind was made with sugar (that was what… 1985 or so??). I never thought the HFCS version tasted any different until I tried the Mexican stuff and immediately knew this was what I drank as a kid.

I’m not one to pretend that sugar is good for me, but I’ll take it over HFCS any day for taste. I won’t let my own kids near either one (except for the occasional birthday party or BBQ) so I guess I have my parents’ looser 1980s nutritional ideals to thank for my realization.

When I was a kid, the brand of ketchup my family has always bought (going back to my grandparents) was sweetened with cane sugar. I loved it. Then they changed to HFCS about the time I moved out of my parents house. I chalked it up to changing adult tastes (I used to love olives, and now can’t stand them, for example) and stopped buying ketchup much.

In the past year, bowing to repeated urgings from my health-food-conscious mother, I tried some organic ketchup (no HFCS) and it tasted almost exactly like I remembered ketchup tasting during my childhood. Turns out my tastes hadn’t shifted with adulthood, HFCS just tastes like crap compared to cane sugar.

It’s a nostalgia thing too. Buying those glass bottles of coke reminds me of trips to Mexico to visit relatives when I was a kid. The coke tastes better in a glass bottle it feels colder. And the bottles looked so huge when I was 7 :D

Same here, since I pay more and I treat it as a treat, my 24 pack of Mexican coke lasts me 2x longer than the 24 pack of regular coke cans I can get at Costco.

Also…Mexican coke is packaged/tastes just like the coke I’d buy in certain third world countries where I’d have to return the bottle after (or they’d just keep the bottle and pour it into a plastic bag and give you a straw).

There’s a Mexican eatery at 15th and Pine that sells them. Also, there is a chinese food store in the Bourse that sells them too. I asked the lady how much it was, I think she said $2 and some change, I kindly said good day and went about my business. Acme USED to sell them for a $1.25!!!

Also check any store that caters to a somewhat high mexican population. Failing that, a mexican grocery store. Here in california, they’re not too hard to come by. And they didn’t seem that unreasonably priced last time I was there.

A helpful bunch of suggestions in this thread, but I can’t help but be reminded of a small-town newspaper I once read with a section devoted to responses to folks trying to find something: “Mary over in Waverly is trying to locate Frosted Grape Pop-Tarts and the local Piggley-Wiggly is only carrying Frosted Strawberry these days.”

In Washington State, the Cash & Carry chain (not related to the same named chain elsewhere) carries entire cases of Mexican Coca-Cola for a LOT cheaper per bottle than any of the regular grocery stores in the area charge.

Pepsi came out with a “throwback” about a year ago with the orange juice concentrate replaced with more citric acid (likely to offset the sugar cost) – it tasted like ass and dissappeared quickly. They have recently come out with “throwback” that just replaces the HFCS with sugar – MUCH better.

My local Walmart Grocery Store sells Mountain Dew Throwback. I had stopped drinking Mountain Dew completely and thought maybe my taste buds had changed as an adult, since I liked it so much as a kid. Well, turns out, I just like it better with real sugar. It’s yummy.

I bought a mountain dew throwback the other day and was really surprised how much citrus flavor it had. Also amazing how much lighter the texture, or mouthfeel was. I don’t drink soda often, but when I do, I will be seeking stuff with real sugar, the difference was astonishing.

The problem is that logistically, its more expensive to put in glass bottles. Shipping costs and breakage, as well as higher initial costs to produce the bottles. Of course, they make up for it over time, if they recycle the bottles.

In other countries, they recycle the bottle multiple times. You know because the bottle is obviously scratched and worn. I imagine we’d be too particular to do that.

That’s sort of my point- Shipping and logistics are “hard” costs that Coke can quantify, customer satisfaction is more difficult to predict and so they tend to focus on where the hard money lies. It’s also a matter of long term ROI. Meaning, the higher costs of bottles will eventually pay for themselves due to recycling, but that would require a company to think beyond double digit quarter growth, and that’s not possible.

So predicting something + long term investment (from a public company perspective) means they probably won’t do it.

“DailyFinance spoke to Coke’s vice president and general manager of Importation and Commercialization (try to fit that on a business card), who added that the growing Hispanic population in the U.S.” [emphasis added]

Mexico isn’t the only Hispanic country with sugar coke- just the closest.

They were into the mid-1980s. Stepan Labs in New Jersey did the processing. They were the sole legal importer of cocaine in the US importing about 50 tons of coca leaves a year. They sold a non-narcotic component to Coca Cola and the narcotic component as a pharmaceutical. Cocaine is used as an ocular anesthetic.

Note that if you get Mexican Coke in plastic bottles, it’s very likely to have corn syrup instead of sugar. Yes, some of this is imported to ethnic markets as well. And (in case you go to Mexico) fountain Coke also has corn syrup instead of sugar. It’s the stuff in the glass bottles that’s made with sugar. Even here in Mexico it’s becoming harder and harder to find the glass bottles; you’ll find it most commonly in small restaurants.

It may be selling better lately because it is getting easier to find. Even in the Northern Frontier here in Minnesota, you could find it before in the major grocery chains, in single bottles. Now I can find it at Sams in a case of 24.

No one is saying cane sugar is health food. All sugar makes you fat but HFCS is processed differently in your body and leads to higher rates of obesity than regular sugar does. Let me guess, unless there is a perfect solution, there is no solution at all eh?

Yesterday after work I needed a quick sammich before hitting the gym so i stopped at BK for a whopper junior and a small coke (don’t start please lol), Anyway, about 10 minutes after drinking my Coke I got “that headache” again. I cannot prove it was from HFCS, but after drinking pepsi with sugar, I never get them so i have nothing else to base it on. In fact when I drink a sugar-made soda, I don’t even get the jitters which I had always attributed to the caffiene but now I am wondering if it was the HFSC all along.

i emailed coca cola a few months back. i think it was their product research address or something like that. but basically i said that they need to buck the market and go back to cane sugar on all of their drinks. i said it would revolutionize the current beverage market and put the other companies in a panic. the reply i got was basically “we have no interest in doing that”

There’s a certain nostalgia to drinking out of the same glass bottles that we had when we were kids. There’s also a certain novelty value towards the foreign labeling and glass bottles for those who have lived their entire lives in the plastic era.

I think Canadian Coke also has sugar. At least, the Pepsi from the vending machines in Quebec did when I was there over the summer.

Their ketchup also has HFCS instead of sugar. I put some Heinz on my fries in a Montreal smoked meat shop and couldn’t understand why it was so sweet: then it occurred to me that there might be HFCS/sugar in ketchup, too, and I checked the label. Sure enough! I actually prefer the tangier US ketchup, but the sugar Coke is much better. I hoard kosher l’Pesach Coke every spring.

No, it doesn’t, unless if the Pepsi is different in Quebec. HFCS is called glucose-fructose in Canada, but it’s the same thing. We don’t seem to get any of the throwback/Mexican/real sugar versions of any pop here, either, at least not that I have been able to find.

Our local Costco and Sam’s have started carrying the product. We have a decent sized Central American population (Salvadoran more than any group from Central America or Mexico), but I’d hardly suspect enough to get product on the shelf. That leads to my question – is this the result of demand leading to stock or stock creating a new market of demand?

We can do this easily in Texas. Sugared Coke IS “the Real Thing.” It just tastes so much better. By the way, it’s MUCH less expensive buying it across the border than buying the fake stuff in the grocery store on our side.

They have it at Sam’s club as well here in PA. I love buying it too but it’s so pricey because you are paying for the glass. In mexico you would be exchanging your old bottles so you only pay for the drink and it’s pretty cheap.

ah, nothing burps better than a cold mexican coke. especially with some menudo on a sunday morning after a night of clubbing and a little leftover buzz. thank goodness i live close enough to the border that i can still bring over a case or two whenever i have a chance to go down.

also, the coke in europe (wife’s from germany) is pretty good too. the fanta and sprite over there is really gross though for whatever reason…

Why does the greatest country in the world get a grossly inferior quality product to one that’s produced in Mexico? I ONLY buy Mexican Coke, if I want a larger pack I buy Pepsi Throwback for the sugar cane instead. Eventually Coke will get with it, since I’ve stopped buying their 12 and 24 packs.

I’ve noticed that I feel more full when I drink an actual sugar drink, and it takes me longer to drink it.

There’s a yummy apple soda from Mexico that I love called Sidral Mundet. I get it at the Mexican grocery, where the bottled Coke is also available. And the mango Jarritos is good too.

Sugared soda just tastes better. When BF was in training and I visited him, we got some Cheerwine in plastic bottles, and it had HFCS. It was nowhere near as good as the glass-bottled variety with cane sugar.

“If Coke made a cane sugar version in the U.S., would you buy that instead of the HFCS version?”

If Coke were to sell a “real sugar” version of their soda that was made in the USA, I can virtually guarantee it wouldn’t be from sugar cane. It would be from sugar beets, just like the majority of sugar laced products in the USA.

I live on a South Texas bordertown with mexico and was raised in Mexico myself and I can tell you the Coca-Colas and other fruit flavored pops (“Joya” [Jewel in english] and “Topochico” [Small mole in english]) that are coming from Mexico are the bomb. There is no comparison with the highly carbonated and fake sugar flavored drinks in the U.S.

The best thing is that I still visit my parents every weekend and stock up on delicious Mexican pop… you can bring up to 150 dlls worth of grocery type Items without being taxed or charged any import/export fees. So its not only soda, but cheese, breakfast cereals, yogurts and all kinds of bad ass mexican chips to accompany you bad ass mexican soda.

I live by 3 liquor stores and a 7eleven. Two of the liquor stores carry Mexican coke in glass bottles. Not to mention it’s really easy to buy it in glass bottles at the swap meet every weekend. Thanks California!

Don’t you all know that Sugar comes from Cuba and they’re are mortal enemies! What’s wrong with corn? It’s just corn guys. Nothing is wrong with genetically modified corn starch! The Indians ate corn. Remember those guys? They gave that to us when we all sat around on thanksgiving.

Sugar is evil. Communist evil. And you don’t want to support communists do you?

My favorite taco truck has Mexican Coke. I get it every time I’m there. I usually drink only diet but the real sugar & in a glass bottle version tastes so much better than the HFCS in plastic or aluminum.

the Mexican coke i’ve seen does say it may contain HFCS in the ingredients list, may have to snap a pic, but I’ve found this grapefruit soda that’s $.88 a bottle that is fabulous, and it only lists sugar as it’s sweetener

Nostalgia? How about a bottle of coke that doesn’t taste like ass? Seriously, I cant do american colas anymore – they all taste like drinking battery acid! It’s gotta be Blue Sky or Jones or Pepsi Flashback or Mexican Coke or nothing.

I like the Mexican Coke, and have bought it on a very small number of occasions…but it’s not worth the price difference. The difference in taste is, realistically, barely noticeable – and the hype around it is almost certainly 95% psychosomatic. You’re convinced it’s *that* much better, so it is…but in reality, it’s a really small difference.

The fact that it comes in an old-school glass bottle is probably the best thing about it.

Coca-Cola knows people prefer the taste of sugar over HFCS, but they continue to make it with HFCS because people continue to buy it that way.

I love the taste of Coke, but only if it’s the Mexican coke. HFCS does not taste good. So what I do is not drink coke most days and treat myself to a mexican coke a couple times a week. If more people started doing this, Coke would change their ways.

And not everyone who buys Mexican coke is Hispanic; I’m as white as it gets.

If buying the Mexican Coke bottles, pay attention to the nutritional information sticker. Some bottles will only list sugar but often times the ingredients listed say [sugar or high fructose corn syrup]. You can bet your bottom dollar if the sticker says “sugar or high fructose corn syrup”, you’re getting high fructose corn syrup only.

What a timely article. The Costco in Leesburg, VA sells a cases of this for $19.00 and I have been buying a case every time I go there. Last night I almost had the will power NOT to buy another case, but I am afraid at anytime they will stop getting it.
At $19.00 a case I try to limit myself to only one per day.

Yeah, Costco started carrying this in our area (Denver) a few years ago, and I buy it for our very large scale BBQs. It’s always a bit hit.

I haven’t tried any actual taste testing, and I frankly wonder if I could distinguish it from HFCS Coke. But I really like the glass bottles (which is a theme of the BBQs: I buy as many different sodas as I can find in actual glass bottles).

By the way, the nearest Sam’s Club not only caries the Mexican Coke, it also carries the Mexican Orange Fanta (12 oz. bottles, cane sugar). Bought two cases of that for our most recent BBQ, and it all vanished as well.

I think a lot of soft drinks bottled in Texas are also made with cane sugar. I used to know some Texans who would order cases of their preferred drinks to be shipped from bottlers in Texas because they prefer the flavor.
Me, the only soda I drink anymore is Jarritos, and that’s just a rare treat. Usually I go for orange or guava, but if I can find grapefruit I’m all over it. It’s especially good mixed with a little tequila. Muy bueno!

Get a bottle of both the Mexican stuff and a glass bottle of the domestic stuff and do a taste test. The real sugar stuff tastes better. Better mouth-feel. Better all around. Pepsi throwback was good, but out of a can it just can’t compete.

That’s the difference for me. It’s not so much the taste. HCFS leaves me with a sticky taste – it’s like coating my tongue with syrup. Sugar is cleaner. It also makes me feel full, so I drink less, and drink more slowly. I stick with diet most of the time, but I do enjoy the occasional sugar-sweetened soda.

Coke made with sugar tastes good but I won’t buy it cuz it costs nearly $20.00 a case.

I know of a gas station near me that sells 2-litre’s of Pepsi “Throwback” for 2 bucks each. Also I’ll buy the individual Pepsi Throwback’s for the lesser price and a local grocer sells Dr Pepper/sugar 12-packs for cheap also. Until Coca-Cola does the same, I’ll buy Pepsi. I like Pepsi better anyhow.

You people realize that it’s not “sugar” that they mix into the vats, it’s invert sugar. They take the sugar and pre-dissolve it with an acid like ascorbic acid and it breaks down the sucrose into 40% glucose, 40% fructose, and 10% other sugars.

It’s in every way nearly identical to the HFCS version. The fact that they change the flavor for different markets is not surprising.

The Mexican Cokes have more flavor, period. I go to MX every few weeks, and usually drink some local stuff. No matter if it’s regular or diet, it has a much better flavor. MX “Coca-Cola Light” is very good, far better than Diet Coke. I think they are skimping on the flavor syrup in the U.S.

The Meijer here in Muncie started carrying MexiCoke last month. I bought a bottle on a whim to try it and was very surprised at how much better it tastes than US Coke. It just didn’t have that thick syrupy mouthfeel that HFCS Coke has, which probably added to my impression that MexiCoke was a bit less sweet than US Coke. I could taste more of the actual flavors of whatever is in Coke.

One of the things I loved about working over in Germany, last year, was that all the sodas were made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Since coming back, I’ve stocked up on soda every time Pepsi does its periodic sales of “throwback” Mtn. Dew. It tastes SO much better. Hell, I won’t drink regular Pepsi, but Throwback Pepsi is quite decent. I actually prefer it to normal coke. But, yeah, when I can get cane sugar coke for a reasonable price, I snatch it up.

As a Canadian, it’s a bummer that we don’t have cane sugar Coke here. We still haven’t even gotten the “Throwback” sodas yet, at least that I’ve seen. There’s a huge difference in taste, bring it back Coke.

FYI coke with cane sugar is produced in the US. It just isn’t produced year round. For passover Coke produces a limited run of “Kosher Coke”. Head to your local jewish enclave and you should be able to find it. It usually comes with a yellow cap but Coke uses the yellow cap frequently. Check the label.

I buy as much as I can but its only produced in 2 liter plastic bottles so shelf life is only 2-3 months. I wish they produced it in aluminum cans.

“Hispanics are purchasing a bit of nostalgia — it’s like getting a piece of home”

For Americans as well- both Mexican Coke and Pepsi Throwback taste like the sodas I drank as a kid. I thought my taste buds had changed, but trying these products made me realize, no, it’s Coke and Pepsi that have changed. They should make this change permanent, and apply it to the garden-variety Coke and Pepsi as well.

There is a definite taste & feel difference; Coke made with sugar is better but also has more calories. The HFCS also makes you feel bloated. Did you know that Canada still uses sugar in their coke too? Just a little interesting tidbit…Back when Coca-Cola Classic came out in the us it had the tag line original formula but Canada had the tag line original taste. Even Coke recognized the difference in their packaging.

I have been buying Mexican Coke over a year now. It reminds me of Coke before the “New Coke” debacle… I stopped buying any coke products till they brought out “Classic” which is still new coke with a slightly old flavor. I have stopped buying any American Coke products again.
I tell everyone about Mexican Coke when I go through the pop isle at the store, many grab a bottle to give it a try.
My favorite way to drink Mexican Coke, an ounce of Bacardi gold, a slice of lime and Coke over ice…
ENJOY!